[96.07] Chandra X-ray Data Analysis in Educational Environments

Recent progress in both software and remote connectivity
capabilities have made it possible for authentic data
analysis tasks to be presented in a wide range of
educational venues. No longer are precollege teachers and
students, and interested members of the public limited by
their lack of access to the scientific workstations and
UNIX-based imaging and analytical software used by the
research community.

Through a suite of programs that couples a simplified
graphical user interface using the "DS9" imaging software
with a "virtual observatory" capability that processes the
analytical algorithms used by X-ray astronomers, we can
access archived Chandra observations and generate images, as
well as light curves, energy spectra, power spectra and
other common examples of science tasks. The system connects
to a remote UNIX server, but the user may be sited on a PC
or Mac platform. Furthermore, the use of VNC (a remote
desktop display environment) allows a teacher to view,
comment on and debug any analysis task in real time, from
anywhere in the world, and across any computer platform.
This makes these programs especially useful in distance
learning settings.

We have developed, tested and used these capabilities in a
wide variety of educational arenas, from 4 week intensive
courses in X-ray astronomy research techniques for
precollege students and teachers, to one day teacher
enrichment workshops, to modules of classroom activities
suitable for precollege grade levels, using a variety of
cosmic X-ray sources. Examples using archived Chandra
observations will be presented demonstrating the flexibility
and usefulness of these resources.